maturity won’t cast off wanting altogether, but will leave behind some
ambitions in favour of better ones.

The author is a gifted writer and
her prose is beautiful, even if at
times readers may feel unsure what
destination she is aiming for. Much
of her work reads like a memoir of
personal wrestling, but her conclusions are rooted in Scripture, with
biblical narrative and interpretation on almost every page.

Teach Us to Want was recently
named Christianity Today book of
the year. –SARAH VAN BEVEREN

Blemished Heart:
One Girl’s Escape
From Abuse to
Freedom

By Fern Boldt
Word Alive Press,
2014. 200 pages. $17
(e-book $9.99)

BLEMISHED HEART is an inspirational
novel that shows how churchgoers
can hide abuse within their homes.
But it also depicts the power of
Christ’s love to overcome.

Lizzy Bauman, the narrator, grows
up in a poor home in Nebraska
during the 1950s. Her father inflicts
the first of several “dark spots” on her

“Trinity Western University commissioned this artwork based
on Ephesians 3: 16–19 in thanks for the wise leadership and
selfless service of departing president Jonathan Raymond.
This image is a prayer that he would continue to know the love
that surpasses knowledge and experience being filled to the
measure of all the fullness of God.”

Canadian creatives

Rooted in Love, Filled to the Measure (encaustic, graphite,steel, text transfer, panel and 23 kt gold) by Erica L. Grimm.www.ericagrimm.comheart – he beats his children with apiece of farm machinery, motivatedby the biblical words, “Spare therod and spoil the child.”Her older brother’s nightly visitsto Lizzy’s room leave another darkspot. Despite these wounds inflictedby churchgoers, Lizzy’s relationshipwith God is stronger than the shameshe feels. Her faith leads her to aChristian high school, where shefinally encounters adults who liveout the gospel and care about her.The story progresses somewhatslowly by way of character sketchesand vignettes from Lizzy’s life,using a fair amount of rural slang.Yet the book is deeply moving,perhaps in part because it draws onreal life experiences. The author, aretired counsellor who trained inToronto at Tyndale UniversityCollege & Seminary, authenticallyportrays Lizzy’s doubts and ques-tions about Christian faith in lightof the physical, emotional andsexual abuse she experiences fromher family.

Blemished Heart portrays how
God is more powerful than the
people in churches who misuse His
words. The book was recently
named best young adult novel by
The Word Guild. –RACHEL BAARDA

Not That Kind
of Girl

By Lena
Dunham
Doubleday
Canada, 2014.
288 pages. $20
(e-book $14.99)

ANYONE INCLINED to read Lena
Dunham’s book of personal
essays is probably already aware
of the controversy that seems
to follow the creator of HBO’s

Girls around like a stink. Whether
she is navel gazing and unaware
of her privilege or a self-aware
genius sending up that privilege;
whether she is naked too much
on screen or it’s sexist to say so;
whether she is ignorant of the
racial diversity of contemporary
Brooklyn – these matters have
already launched a thousand
think-pieces.

Not That Kind of Girl hasattracted controversy as well,and the breadth and frequency ofthose kerfuffles could be a signthese essays have somethingimportant to say about ourcultural moment. The bookflows thematically rather thanchronologically. We learn abouther determination to lose hervirginity, her awkwardness aboutsex, her sister’s homosexuality,her struggles at school and so on.

Many will be offended by its frank
sexuality, its unrelenting interest
in turning what is private – even
sacred – into fodder.

Often, reading these essays feels
less like a revelation of truth and
more like a revelation of Dunham’s
preoccupations. Even so, the book
does have something to offer.
Young artists may be encouraged
by her fumbling ambition, and her
eagerness to make, in her work,
“a better or clearer universe . . .
or at least one that makes sense.”
The book provides a window into
the mind of a woman who may
or may not be the voice of her
generation. –LIZ HARMER